Head shield for airplane occupants



Dec. 6, 1955 R. F. LESLEY ET AL HEAD SHIELD FOR AIRPLANE OCCUPANTS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Sept. 26, 1952 INVENTORS Robert E Les/er a?- Y Robert C. Temp/(ms B ATTORNEY 1955 R. F. LESLEY ET AL 2,726,054

HEAD SHIELD FOR AIRPLANE OCCUPANTS Filed Sept. 26, 1952 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. Reba/'2 f. Lesley & Robert C. Tompkins A TTORZVEY m a BY United States Patent 2,726,054 HEAD SHIELD FOR AIRPLANE OCCUPANTS Robert F. Lesley, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, and Robert C. Tompkins, Los Angeles, Calif., assignors to Goodyear Aircraft Corporation, Akron, Ohio, a corporation of Delaware Applicationseptember 26, 1952, Serial No. 31l,t64 Claims. (Cl. 244121) This invention relates to occupant ejection devices for high speed airplanes and in particular to the construction of a head shield attached to such a seat for protecting the head of a pilot, or occupant, against air pressure and to hold it in proper position when the occupant is ready for ejection from the airplane.

Heretofore it has been known to use flexible aprons to protect the face of a pilot against the tremendous air pressure when ejection of the seat from the airplane took place. However, these aprons, pulled by the pilot over his face, did not give adequate face protection because the air pressure forced the apron right against the pilots face, or the apron was even torn out of the pilots hands resulting in injury.

It is the general object of the invention to avoid and overcome the foregoing and other difficulties of and objections to prior art practices by the provision of a head shield which completely encloses the head of the user thereof and to protect it during and after ejection from an aircraft against wind pressure, low temperature, flying debris, and other likely hazards;

Another object of the invention is to restrain head movement of the user of the head shield during and after ejection from an aircraft and to insure positive position-- ing of the users head prior to ejection.

The aforesaid objects of the invention and other objects which will become apparent as the description proceeds are achieved by providing a head shield consisting of a fixed box like portion, serving as head rest and also for restraining the users head laterally, and of a preferably transparent retractable front portion, which in lowered position, together with the fixed portion, completely encloses the users head to give it full protection against exterior hazardous conditions during and after an ejection.

For a better understanding of the invention reference should be had to the accompanying drawings, wherein Fig. l is a side view partly in section of one embodiment of the invention,

Fig. 2 is a front view thereof shown partly in section,

Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional top view taken on line III-III of Fig. 1,

Fig. 4 is a cross-sectional view in larger scale through the main fulcrum of the face shield,

Fig. 5 is an inner side view taken on line V-V of Fig. 4,

Fig. 5 is a cross-sectional front view in larger scale of the upper fulcrum with the face shield shown in protective positions,

Fig. 7 is a cross-sectional view taken on line Vll-Vll of Fig. 6,

Fig. 8 is a top view of Fig. 6.

With specific reference to the form of the invention illustrated in the drawings, the numeral 1 indicates the guide rails forming a part of the ejection seat (not shown) for an airplane occupant and which are slidable on rollers 2 pivotally mounted on brackets 3 fixed to an airplane structure. A substantially rectangular head support box,

formed by a pair of side walls 4 giving lateral support to the occupants head, a head rest back wall 5 connecting theside walls, and a cylindrically shaped top wall, preferably all of metal, is secured with the side walls 4 to the guide rails 1. The inside of the head support box is provided with a padding 7 covering the vertical walls '4 and 5 to prevent head injuries. At their bottom front corners the side walls 4 are provided with holes 8 as a fulcrum for pivotally mounting therein a face shield 9 having the shape of a quadrant-like sector. The face shield 9 is made preferably of transparent plastic mate rial, such as Plexiglas, having along its edges reinforce ments 10 consisting of laminated resin impregnated fiberglas cloth. To the corner portions of the straight side walls of the face shield 9 are attached by riveting, or otherwise, side plates 11, to the inner ones of which are fixedly secured pulleys 12 from which extends sliding keys 13 releasably secured thereon against turning by pin-like extensions 14 and fitting with their outer ends into the holes 8 to serve as pivots for the face shield 9. Bolts 15 hold the keys 13 in place and stops l6 serve as supports for the face shield in retracted position. To the inside at the bottom of the cylindrical wall of the face shield 9 is attached a book 17 which when the face shield is tilted forwardly moves into a groove 13 running along the center of the top wall 6 of the head support box at the front end of which is attached a pin 19 to act as fulcrum by engaging thehook 17 of the face shield 9 to make the shield swing backwards against the chest of the pilot. By so doing the keysl3, which thereby are being turned from a substantially vertical position into the position corresponding to the direction of the curved slots 20 in the side walls 4, move in these slots with the pins 19 as fulcrum for the face shield 9, which to protect the chest of the pilotis provided with a soft rubber strip 21 serving also as a seal against onrushing air. A spring latch 22 fastened to a transverse member 23 tied in between the walls 4 holds the face shield arrested in retracted position by engaging the hook 17.

For operating the face shield 9, cables 24 fixed with one end to the pulleys 12 and led over pulleys 25 and 26 supported by pivots 27 fastened to the walls 4 are connected with their other ends to tension springs 28 enclosed in and secured with one end in the bottom of casings 29 which are attached by brackets 3'0 to the guide rails 1. When releasing the face shield 9 the spring latch 22 is disengaged from the hook 1'7 by means of a cable Sl leading over a pulley 32 supported by bracket 33 to a pre-ejection control (not shown), operated by the pilot, and from which also are actuated other devices for ejecting the seat. After disengagement of the latch 22 from the hook 17 the springs 28 first turn the face shield 9 about the main fulcrum 8 into forward position, shown in dotted lines, until the hook 17 engages with the pin 19. During this process the keys 13 have changed their diametrical position in the holes 8 so that: they may enter the slots 20 and spring 28 still in tension will turn the face shield 9 backwards about pin 19 until the keys 13 have reached the end of the slots 20. In this position the head of the seat occupant is completely enclosed and protected against the injurious air pressure when ejection of the seat takes place.

Although the invention is illustrated in combination with an ejection seat it is just as well adapted to be used with various other ejection devices and for different positions of the occupant.

From the aforesaid it will be recognized that the ob jects of the invention to completely protect the head of a user of the seat at an ejection from a high speed airplane is solved in a novel, satisfactory and practical way with the additional advantage over prior practice that the face shield does not obstruct the vision of the user. In

this connection it may be said that instead of making the face shield of transparent material, it could be made of sheet metal or other suitable material and provided with a window. 7

While certain representative embodiments'and details have been shown for theipurpose of illustrating the invention, it will be apparent to those skilled in this art that various changes and modificationsmay be made therein without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention.

What is claimed:

1. In combination with an airplane occupant ejection device an enclosure for the head of the occupant, comprising a fixed head rest box, open at front and bottom, for covering the rear half of the head of the occupant and substantially restraining occupants head from lateral movement, a rigid one-piece face shield forming substantially an open quadrant-like sector pivotally mounted on and surrounding said box for forward movement, a fulcrum attached to the front of said box, and hook means at the rear edge of the face shield engageable with said fulcrum when the face shield is in forward position for tilting the face shield rearwardly against the chest of the occupant and to completely cover his head against various hazards when ejection takes place.

2. In combination with an airplane ejection seat an enclosure for the head of the seat occupant, comprising a fixed head rest box, open at the front and bottom, for covering the rear half of the head of the seat occupant and substantially restraining occupants head from lateral movement, a rigid one-piece face shield forming substantially an open quadrant-like sector pivotally mounted on and surrounding said box for forward movement, a fulcrum attached to the front of said box, hook means at the rear edge of the face shield engageable with said fulcrum when the face shield is in forward position for tilting the face shield rearwardly against the chest of the occupant and to completely cover his head against air pressure when ejection takes place, and operating means for executing the movements of the face shield.

3. In combination with an airplane ejection seat an enclosure for the head of the seat occupant, comprising a fixed head rest box being open at front and bottom and covering the rear half of the head of the occupant, a circularly movable rigid and transparent face shield pivotally mounted on and surrounding said box for forward movement, said face shield forming substantially a quadrant-like sector made of transparent plastic material and having reinforced edges made of laminated resin impregnated fiberglas cloth, a protective rubber strip attached along the upper front edge of the face shield, a fulcrum at the upper front end of said fixed box, hook means at the rear edge of the face shield engageable with the fulcrum for tilting the face shield, when in forward position, backwards against the occupants chest protected by said rubber strip, and operating means for executing the movements of the face shield.

4. In combination with an aircraft ejection seat an enclosure for the head of the seat occupant, comprising a head rest box fastened to the seat structure, said box being open at front and bottom and provided with holes as fulcrum having circular slots extending rearwardly therefrom, a rigid tiltable transparent face shield formed substantially as an open quadrant-like sector surrounding said box, pivot means attached to the face shield in operative engagement with said fulcrum, a hook at the inside of the bottom edge of the face shield, latch means in engagement with said hook with the face shield being in retracted position, means for releasing the latch means, spring means fastened to the seat structure and being operatively connected with the face shield for swinging it forwardly about said fulcrum, and a second fulcrum at the front of said box for engaging said hook for backward swinging movement of the face shield about said second fulcrum by said spring means with said slots providing space for said pivot means.

5. The combination in an aircraft ejection seat of a head enclosure for the user of the seat, said enclosure including a head rest portion fixed to the back of the seat structure and a rigid one-piece face shield of U-crosssection hinged to the head rest portion and movable as a rigid one-piece unit thereover to an out of the way position where the seat user can sit down and use the seat normally without objectionable interference from the face shield, lock means for holding the face shield in its out of the way position, and power means for moving the face shield to surround the seat users head upon release of the lock means.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,027,764 Rilleau May 28, 1912 2,167,969 Bowers Aug. 1, 1939 2,479,713 Beach Aug. 23, 1949 2,511,168 Martin et al June 13, 1950 2,579,683 Lobelle Dec. 25, 1951 2,638,293 Lindstrom May 12, 1953 FOREIGN PATENTS 412,717 Great Britain July 5, 1934 464,351 France Jan. 12, 1914 

